High altitude arid equatorial region

I'm starting this topic in hopes that others in a similar geography and climate can exchange experiences and information about homesteading and farming in these conditions.  

These are the Andes mountains, an area that is arid but with a hefty rainy season with a couple good "hailstorms" every year.

Around 3500 meters altitude (well, throw a rock and you're at 3800 or 3400), pretty consistent temperatures year around compared to the US.  Rainy season is potato bonanza bazaar.  Dry season (with irrigation) is great for carrots and cabbage.  

I run the rocket heater more in the daytime during "summer rains" because, obviously enough, there's way less sunshine.

Exact climate zoning is pretty unique to every point on the map because of the rapid changes in altitude and what angle a patch of land has toward the sun, and how long the rainy season is.  One homestead might be at 13,000 feet but only 1000 feet above the nearest valley floor, another might be at 7000 feet but but 2500 feet above the nearest floors.  I'm no topographer, and I grew up in flatlands, but I suspect relative altitude has some impact on the bioculture (as we can see with treelines), rather than just absolute altitude.  You can physically visualize different rainy seasons too-- it starts raining daily within our line of sight in several mountainous cul-de-sacs, weeks before it gets to us.  So my specific rainy season is approximately December through April, but can start up in September and end in June.

We have a corral with a couple goats, chickens, ducks, and... wild guinea pigs.  They're surely eating more than their share of the forage, but so far we can't be bothered to exterminate them.

I'm new to homesteading anyway, so I don't always know what I don't know.  Up front, is there any "must knows" about living at 3500 meters and caring for laying hens, goats, ducks?  Can I grow American sweet corn in this climate?  I'm really interested in knowing whether altitude affects anything I need to know about soil management.  (Touch it and it falls 3 feet closer to the ocean, but I'm really wondering about soil chemistry, haha).  The human metabolism functions differently at extreme altitudes so I figure maybe soil chemistry and nutrient uptake in plants could be different too.

Sorry I keep switching between talking in meters and talking in feet.  I grew up in the States but I've been in meter-land for a few years now.

I was born and raised in a very similar climate but settled way down at 300 meters over sea level cause of warmth reasons :) The high- mountains are so lovely tho and theyre a very unique and wonderful place, the Chingaza National park is one of my favorite places on earth (I think its a lot wetter but still):



Sepp Holzers stuff could be of great inspiration and reference as hes done incredible things in very steep and cold country, some of his techniques and ways of approaching the land could be very useful for your homestead.

Here is his take on an Ecuadorian site:


If you want to learn more this movies set is brilliant!

Ive seen people grow sweet corn in these conditions but there are a huge variety of species that were selected by the Andean indigenous communities for a very long time that really thrive. I recall a database/store of a group of communities who are trying to restore these corn seeds and will look for it to share the list of names. Quinua could be a good crop too. Theres also a bunch of amazing tubers that I really like “arracacha” or  “yacón”. The Muisca diet is a good guide.

Your post also reminded me of the Peruvian water techniques that are coming back, maybe they can be useful too:


Helen’s Garden Master Course will also be an amazing tool for this climate type! So much good info to apply.

Hannah Johnson wrote:Sorry I keep switching between talking in meters and talking in feet.  I grew up in the States but I've been in meter-land for a few years now.

My mind works in meters and lately Ive been doing a lot of stuff with feet, its indeed a process but Im starting to see a lot of benefits of thinking in both

@Andres Bernal
I look forward to checking out those videos.  Where we live was once a hacienda and then was granted as a single title to the collective of families working the hacienda some 40 years ago.  Now it's an "association", still with one title, but people can pay to share in the ownership.  It's like a neighborhood association of farmers.  

What's left of the original hacienda is the best flat land of the tract, and there they grow quinoa year after year.  On the steep slopes people are growing alfalfa and barley to feed their guinea pigs; a couple of large-kernel varieties of corn for hominy and parched corn (well, 'choclo', 'mote,''tostado').

Una pregunta-- si ese tema jala mas a personas que ya viven en ese region, sera aceptable charlar en espanol, or seria una ofensa a los que no entienden?  At the least I feel it would make sense to use local terms like "chacra" and "productos..." I don't know.  Just a fun idea if nobody feels left out because of it.

I didn't give nearly an exhaustive list of products.  Other common ones are culantro, peas, lots of habas, carrots, and of course, potatoes. A lot of onions too.  I could say "a lot, a lot, a lot" because it is an abundant area thanks to year around irrigation.  On a smaller scale they grow broccoli and other cruciferous veggies.  They're also leaning into greenhouses with more perishable products such as strawberries.  A few fruit trees. Local honey.  

Andrés Bernal wrote:I was born and raised in a very similar climate but settled way down at 300 meters over sea level cause of warmth reasons :) The high- mountains are so lovely tho and theyre a very unique and wonderful place, the Chingaza National park is one of my favorite places on earth (I think its a lot wetter but still):



Sepp Holzers stuff could be of great inspiration and reference as hes done incredible things in very steep and cold country, some of his techniques and ways of approaching the land could be very useful for your homestead.

I enjoyed the Youtube videos and now I'm looking into the documentaries.  I saw some comments that they weren't able to be downloaded out of country, so that might be a showstopper.

In our village the irrigation water is transported in a gravity system of tubes (yes, called pipes in English but I've been here long enough to think of them as tubes! haha), but other water that goes beyond our village to other private landowners farther downhill, goes in canals at least part of the way.  It's nice, you can always see a hint of green below the canal line.  They make for beautiful walks, to walk alongside a rushing little canal with vegetation all around.

I did not get enough out of the short videos to understand how I might imitate some of those practices.  Ourselves, so far, we mostly leveled the main part of our yard which already wasn't too steep, with a 2-meter tire wall.  Other parts of our land seem to have been partially tiered a long time ago, I suspect as a foot path more than a series of fields, before a cargo road was cut through our side of town. The largest of these tiers (about 4 meters by 40) itself slopes downward fairly steeply, and we have been working to level that one in small sections with more tire walls.  This does help with water retention, but we haven't thought about pond-building.  Since we're part of a shared tract of land, we wouldn't have any private water rights, so any ponds would only be able to collect rainwater.  Ideally we'd build up big rock retention walls at the foot of, and all the length of, the tiers so we can really, really level them.  For now they're pretty sloppy as tiers go.  My fantasy has always been to write some books to fund my homesteading hobbies, but in reality I've never been good at sacrificing sleep in order to realize my dreams.

I did not get enough out of the short videos to understand how I might imitate some of those practices.  

Here is a free viewing dubbed in Spanish documentary on Sepp Holzer, it is very broad and conceptual but gets the point across really well:



The three documentaries are more practical. Maybe the World Domination Gardening Movies can also be a great resource. Sounds like you guys are already doing some awesome things! Would really like to see your progression. Maybe one day well get to read that awesome book on your homestead adventures :)

My neighbours are an indigenous reserve community who are beginning to apply permaculture design on their territory, its really fun and perplexing to see how a big community all focused on working with nature can achieve in such a short period of time. Hopefully your example, in time, will infect your associates and the solutions you apply are also implemented inside the shared territory.

I'm starting to watch through "The Stuff" so I'll worry about high altitude specific stuff later.  But every bit helps build vision.